William b



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

wrLLIA B; rouse,- oF GOLDEN, COLOR DO, ASSIGNOR 'ro HIMSELF, GREGORY BOARD, AND. F. E.-. EVERETT, OF 'sAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN PROCESSES FOR SEPARATING COPPER AND 'TllE'PREGlOUS METALS FROM COPPER MATTE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No.

l 92,401, dated June 25, 1877 application filed October 18, 1816.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM B. Yomve,

of the town of Golden, county of Jeflerson, in

the State of-Oolorado, have invented a new and useful Process for Separating Copper and the Precious Metals from Uopper Matte; and I do hereby declare that the following is a. full, clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention has for its object a cheaper and more rapid process for separating copper, gold, and silver from copper matte :thanhas been hitherto known or used.

The mode of conducting my process is as follows The copper matte produced insmelting establishments is crushed to the finest powder, mixed with chloride of sodium in proper proportions, which is determined by the amount of copper-in'the matte to be treated. It is thenroasted in a reverberatory furnace or roasting-oven at a dull-red heat, till the copper has been converted into achloride.- The matte is then drawn from the oven, and

chloride of copper dissolved with water. The residuum in the dissolving-tank containing the gold and silver is passed direct to a blastfurnace in connection with the ordinary smelting of lead ores, when the gold and silver of the residuum pass to the lead and are drawn from the furnace as lead bullion, ready for.

to is to roast the matte until the copper is converted into an insoluble oxide, when the silver is in. a condition of soluble sulphate. The copper and gold remaining, are then separated, generally by dissolving the copper in sulphuric acid, or by slagging off the copper as a'silicate in a reverberatory furnace, and subsequently treating the silicate of copper by smelting for copper. Both of these processes are slow and expensive, and require the greatest degree of skilled labor to conduct them l p It will he observed that by my process no furnace'hands, which renders it very expeditions and inexpensive, saving at least fifty per cent. 'costgof reducing copper matte over the common or ordinary method. Add, fur- -ther,'matte always contains a percentage of iron, which becomes converted into an oxide by theroasting when converting the copper of the matte into a chloride. And the oxide of iron, being in the residuum of the tank with the gold and silver, becomes a valuable flux, as added to the blast-furnace, as before mentioned. What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, 1s-.

Theprocess of separating copper and the 'sists in roasting the pulverized matte with common salt, dissolving out the chlorid'enof copper with water, andsmelting the residue with lead ores, to obtain gold and silver bullion, substantially as herein set forth.

WILLIAM B. YOUNG. Witnesses:

OnAELEs BocEEs, Tnos. KILVEET'.

skilled labor" is needed beyond 'the'common precious metals from copper matte, which con- 

